The Raven (1963)

Who's In It: Vincent Price (The Fly, The Haunted Palace, The Tomb of Ligeia), Peter Lorre (M, The Maltese Falcon, Casablanca), Boris Karloff (Bride of Frankenstein, How the Grinch Stole Christmas), and Jack Nicholson (The Shining, Wolf).

What It's About: A despondent wizard (Price), mourning the death of his wife, helps another sorcerer (Lorre) who was turned into a raven by third (Karloff), drawing them all into a contest for the leadership of the entire magic community.

How It Is: I needed to finally see some of the Roger Corman/Edgar Allen Poe/Vincent Price movies and this is the year. This was a weird one to start with though, because of the humor. It's a fun, lighthearted story about rival wizards and there's plenty of room for Price, Lorre, and Karloff to ham it up as Olive Sturgess (playing Price's daughter) and young Jack Nicholson (as Lorre's son) look on in horror. And there's even a plot twist or two to keep things moving.

It's slight, but delightful. Deslightful!

Rating: 3 out of 5 bawdy blackbirds.

7 Days in May | A Monster Calls and Holmes vs Ripper

A Monster Calls (2016)



Heartbreaking and thought-provoking. It's easy to understand what the characters are going through, but there are depths to the way the film tells the story that I haven't fully worked through. Lots of symbolism and since the movie is about the complex emotions of grieving, it invites me to dive into those and that takes some processing.

Lovely performances, too, especially by Lewis MacDougall and Sigourney Weaver. And Toby Kebbell's likable, but complicated role makes me even more impressed that he's also Koba in the new Planet of the Apes trilogy.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2016)



Diane and David hadn't seen this and wanted to. My opinion on it hasn't really changed from the first time I saw it. I don't care much about the US Wizarding World and the plot of Fantastic Beasts is pretty light. I'm bored for most of the movie, but by the end I find that I really like the characters played by Eddie Redmayne, Dan Fogler, and Alison Sudal. It's not a great movie, but I'd be willing to give a sequel a look just to spend more time with those three.

Murder by Decree (1979)



We came back from Britain with a list of movies to watch. One of which had to be Sherlock Holmes trying to catch Jack the Ripper. Christopher Plummer looks the part of Holmes (though with poofier hair than I'm used to), but he's more emotional than Holmes should be. That's fitting for the seriousness of the real-world case he's trying to solve, but it doesn't feel like a real Holmes story. And it doesn't help that most of the clues are handed to Holmes by informers rather than his solving the case through observation and deduction as he should.

James Mason is a wonderful Watson, though, and it's always nice to see young Donald Sutherland, even when his role doesn't actually contribute anything to the story. And I like the theory about the Ripper's identity. This isn't the only time I've seen that particular theory put forth, but the other times are all in things that came out after this one.

The Gods Must Be Crazy (1980)



Another '80s movie to show David. I don't know that we'd call it politically correct by today's standards, but it's so kindhearted that it's impossible for me to pick at it. Very funny.

The Hustler (1961)



Watched this in order to also watch The Color of Money. I've only ever seen it once before and had forgotten almost everything about it. So, like the first time, I went into it expecting it to be Rocky with pool and was shocked by how it so not about pool or even winning. At least, not about winning pool. It's about how we define winning at life and what we're willing to sacrifice to do it. Very powerful with great performances by an all-star cast.

The Color of Money (1986)



Like The Hustler, it's easy to go into The Color of Money with the wrong idea of what it is, but it's a mistake to approach it as Top Gun with pool. It's not about Vincent's (Tom Cruise) rise to dominance in the game; in fact, despite Cruise's being a major star already in 1986, Vincent isn't even the main character. Appropriately, that's still Fast Eddie (Paul Newman). Vincent is just the catalyst that sparks the change Eddie's going to go through.

There's a lot to like about The Color of Money. The way it shoots the movement of the balls is amazing and beautiful. Everyone's doing a great job acting (special shout out to Forest Whitaker in a small, but vital role). And it's a good, emotionally satisfying story. But I don't like it as much as The Hustler, because it doesn't play fair with Eddie.

The Hustler is about Eddie's redefining his life goals thanks to the tension provided by his relationships with Sarah (Piper Laurie) and Bert (George C Scott). Because of how that movie ended, Eddie can't really play pool for cash anymore, but Money reveals that he's managed to stay connected by staking other players in games (taking a percentage of their winnings).

That's all cool, but the disappointing bit is that he seems to have unlearned the dearly bought lesson of The Hustler and has basically become Bert. Through his experiences backing Vincent, he relearns what's really important to him, but I hate stories that reset the main character and have them undergo the same journey again (see also: Captain Kirk in Star Trek Into Darkness and the entire series of House).

Money is just different enough that it doesn't feel like a total cheat, but I feel like we're missing the middle part of a trilogy. Still, it's an expertly made movie and it feels right at the end.

Double or Nothing (1937)



A minor Bing Crosby movie in which he and some other characters compete for the inheritance of an eccentric millionaire. They're each given $5000 and the first one to double it gets the whole shebang. Of course, the millionaire's family are there to work against them. It's a cookie-cutter plot, mostly there to hang musical numbers on since the various money-making schemes usually involve singing and dancing. And there's an unconvincing romance between Crosby and the dead millionaire's niece. But I very much enjoyed the end and the specific way in which Crosby outwits his opponents.

Bulldog Drummond Comes Back (1937)



Pretty good mystery in which Drummond has to solve a series of puzzles in order to find his kidnapped girlfriend. The puzzles go on a little longer than I'd like, but they're mostly good ones and I've grown fond of these characters the more Drummond films I watch.

Heidi (1937)



Shirley Temple is always awesome and this is a classic that I've never seen, so I decided to finally fix that on the film's 80th anniversary. I get why people have liked it: it's Shirley Temple doing what she do, but in a series of fantastic settings. It's mostly an infuriating movie though where everyone acts either stupidly or despicably to keep the story moving. If I want to see Shirley Temple charm old curmudgeons (and I do!), I'd rather re-watch Bright Eyes or Captain January.

The Shadow Strikes (1937)



My first Shadow movie. Really my first Shadow story in any medium, but I'm familiar enough with the character to know that this isn't a faithful version. And it's kind of ridiculous.

The Shadow is stopping a robbery in a lawyer's office when the police show up. Rather than getting caught as the Shadow, he changes back to his civvies and claims to be the lawyer. But while he's doing that, he gets a call to come change the will of a millionaire. It's a case of mistaken identity that leads to a murder investigation when of course the millionaire winds up dead. There are billion chances for the Shadow to remove himself from the situation, but he never takes them. He's too interested in the tomfoolery, the mystery, and the millionaire's daughter. Lamont Granston (sic) is a pudgy, swashbuckling playboy with a pencil mustache in this version. If you're willing to forgive all that though, it's kind of fun.

Thank You, Mr. Moto (1937)



In the '30s, all the major horror stars liked to put on yellow face and play Asian crime-fighters. Why should Warner Oland have all the fun? Boris Karloff famously played Fu Manchu, but he was also detective Mr Wong in a series of five films. And I thought I remembered Bela Lugosi's doing it, but I must have been thinking of his playing a villain who was also named Mr. Wong in The Mysterious Mr. Wong (1934). Peter Lorre got into the action with the Mr. Moto series.

Acknowledging the problems of these movies (Brian Camp has a terrific essay covering the trend), the Mr. Moto series is my favorite of them. I wish that he could have been played by an actual Japanese person, but the character is cool and complex. I love the kindly, humble, and whip-smart Charlie Chan, but Moto is deviously cunning and even long after I've figured out how he operates, he manages to surprise me with his loose morality and shady tactics. He's endlessly fascinating.

In Thank You, Mr. Moto, he's on the trail of a series of maps that lead to lost treasure, so there's an Indiana Jones quality to it, too.

The Year in Movies: 1931 - Mystery and Horror

Dracula (1931)



It's tough not to compare Tod Browning's Dracula to Murnau's Nosferatu from nine years earlier. The ability to add sound to movies was a great reason to do a new version of Stoker's story (with all the proper rights, too, instead of sneakily changing the characters' names) and Browning was a good choice to direct it. His style is very different from Murnau's, but it's distinct and creepy and brings some beautiful atmosphere to Dracula.

But Murnau's version is actually scary and Browning's never is. Murnau's Count Orlok is a true monster, from his very appearance to his strange powers that Murnau so cleverly gives him through special effects. Browning's version - truer to Stoker's novel - is meant to be creepily charming. You don't realize he's a threat until it's too late. Which is cool, but Browning uses so little effects that even when Dracula is supposed to be frightening, it's mostly suggested by the way other characters are reacting to him.

That can be very effective sometimes, especially in the case of Dwight Frye's Renfield, who's easily the most chilling character of the film. Edward Van Sloan also adds to Dracula's menace as Van Helsing. The Van Helsing character is a giant weakness of Nosferatu, but I always have a lot of fun watching him work in Dracula, trying to first figure out who the vampire is (initially suspecting Renfield), then playing a game of wills against Bela Lugosi's monster.

I wish that Helen Chandler was a better Mina, though. Mina is the heart of any version of Dracula and it's important to get her right. Nosferatu gives her a tragically heroic role (renamed Ellen and played with full commitment by Greta Schröder). In Browning's movie, Mina is simply the MacGuffin; the object that the characters are all fighting over. She's not written very well, but she's played even worse by Chandler who never eases into the character and always reminds me that she's an actress playing a role. (Lupita Tovar is much better in the Spanish version that was shot simultaneously with Browning's using the same script and sets, but with a different director and cast. That's a different review, though.)

The movie is also dreadfully slow, but in spite of that and my misgivings about Chandler, I always enjoy revisiting Browning's Dracula for its mood and its cultural impact and especially for Lugosi, Frye, and Van Sloan. I should give a quick shout out to David Manners' John Harker, who's mostly nondescript, but has one great moment when he throws down his newspaper in disgust and leaves the room because of Van Helsing's crackpot ideas about shape-changing, immortal blood-suckers. Manners is visually pretty nondescript, but he's grown on me as an actor and I always seem to find something to enjoy in his performances.

The Sleeping Cardinal (aka Sherlock Holmes' Fatal Hour) (1931)



Unlike the silent Sherlock Holmes from 1922, this is a pretty good representation of Holmes and Watson. Holmes is smart and knows it, but his arrogance is gentler than in a lot of adaptations. Watson is always a step behind, but he's familiar with Holmes' methods and no fool. I liked these guys a lot.

I also enjoyed how much focus the movie gives to some of the supporting characters before bringing in the detectives. That helped pull me into the mystery.

M (1931)



Sort of Ocean's Eleven meets Silence of the Lambs with a gang of crooks teaming up to capture a serial killer/pedophile. Peter Lorre is super creepy and appropriately baby-faced as the murderer, but my favorite part is the cat and mouse game when the criminals have him holed up in an office building and he's working to get away from them. That section holds up next to any modern thriller.

And the film wraps up with a fascinating meditation on justice that had my son and I arguing about what the right thing to do would be. Nicely done.

The Maltese Falcon (1931)



It's been a long time since I've seen the original, so I can't compare the two versions, but I really enjoyed Ricardo Cortez as Sam Spade. He's a sleazy, but charming ladies' man in a way that Bogart can't possibly pull off. As interesting as that is, though, I couldn't really root for him the way I can with Bogart. And I kept missing Peter Lorre and Sydney Greenstreet.

It was sure great seeing Dwight Frye as a tough though. I love that guy.

The Black Camel (1931)



It's fun to see Warner Oland as Charlie Chan interacting with Bela Lugosi and Dwight Frye from the same year as Dracula. And The Black Camel a pretty good mystery story. But this is early days in the Charlie Chan series and it moves slowly. There are much better as the series goes along.

Murder at Midnight (1931)



Fun, if unbelievable and convoluted mystery about a murder that takes place during a party in front of witnesses. Once you know the relationships between the victim and the other characters, the broad strokes of the plot are predictable, but there were also a couple of twists that I didn't see coming.

Daughter of the Dragon (1931)



Aside from the problems of non-Asian actors playing Asian characters, I always enjoy Warner Oland as Charlie Chan. That doesn't make him a good Fu Manchu though. He's not threatening enough, though Daughter of the Dragon's script gives him a pretty good scheme to implement.

As the title suggests, it involves his daughter, played by Anna May Wong. She's great in the role, but the character has super shaky motivations for taking over her father's vendetta against an English family. And not just that, but she also has extremely good, personal reasons not to pick up that mission. But even though her struggle isn't really earned, the movie does some interesting things with it and there are enough pulpy elements to keep the story entertaining.

The Phantom (1931)



I usually have a high tolerance for slow-moving movies of the early '30s, especially if there's an old, dark house involved, but I couldn't finish this one. Without an interesting actor to latch onto or any sort of plot development that I haven't seen done better in countless other mystery/horror films, it became too much of a chore to keep going. Dull and unremarkable.

Frankenstein (1931)



Seen it a million times, but I'm still surprised at how scary and creepy it is. Not much faithful to the plot of Mary Shelley's novel, but very faithful to its themes.

My only issue is the way it rushes through parts of its final act. Everyone learns about the monster and processes that information really quickly. On the other hand, I'm not sure I actually want a slowed down version.

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931)



The inventive camera work can be distracting, but the performances are so earnest and March's makeup is so effective that the movie is legitimately horrifying, even today. Miriam Hopkins is especially heart-breaking as Hyde's terrorized, primary victim. March's Hyde is easily the most monstrous of movie monsters from that era.

Climax!: "Casino Royale" (1954)

Ian Fleming always intended for Bond to get out of the books and onto the screen. In fact, the US edition of Casino Royale had only been out several months when it was adapted for TV by the hour-long, suspense anthology series, Climax. “Casino Royale” was the show’s third episode following an adaptation of Raymond Chandler’s The Long Goodbye and the Bayard Veiller play The Thirteenth Chair (which had already been made into three different movies, one of which was directed by Tod Browning and co-starred Bela Lugosi).

The show was kind of a big deal. Though the few, remaining prints are black-and-white, the series was actually broadcast in color, which was rare in 1954. It was also hosted by film star William Lundigan (Dodge City, The Sea Hawk). But Fleming would come to regret the hastiness with which he accepted the Climax deal and it’s not hard to see why. The show famously changed James Bond into an American CIA agent named “Card Sense” Jimmy Bond, and while that was the most obvious and horrific alteration, it wasn’t the only one.

The Le Chiffre job is still an international operation coordinated by Britain, but Her Majesty’s Secret Service is represented by Clarence Leiter (replacing the novel’s American Felix), who says he works for Station S (the MI-6 branch in the novel that comes up with the mission). Clarence bankrolls Bond’s initial gambling stake and even debriefs him on the mission, a la M. Bond himself is clueless about the case when he arrives at the casino and at first assumes that he’s supposed to assassinate Le Chiffre.